Paramedics treated Hovland, and the sentencing hearing continued with her sitting in a gurney, an intravenous tube attached to her arm.

A jury in May found Hovland guilty of attempted murder for leaving her newborn in a Hoffman Estates trash bin.

Under Illinois' truth-in-sentencing law, Hovland must serve 85 percent of her sentence, or nearly 15 1/2 years. Her sentence will include the two years she already has spent behind bars awaiting trial.

Earlier in Tuesday's hearing, when Hovland was allowed to address the court, she insisted she never meant to hurt the child she had delivered at home on the morning of Oct. 16, 1995.

She said she didn't know what she was doing or thinking when she put the baby in a plastic bag, knotted the top and put the newborn in the trash bin behind Columbia Hoffman Estates Medical Center.

She also emphasized that she did not "throw" the baby into the trash bin, as prosecutors had said. And she said she changed her mind and went back to get her daughter, but the bundle already had been discovered by a construction worker.

"I think about this every day," Hovland said in a low voice, sniffing back tears. "This was not planned. This was not deliberate."

The construction worker heard the baby crying and alerted hospital workers, who rescued the infant and named her Mary Grace.

For several days, adoption offers poured in from across the country as police searched for the baby's mother. The child now lives with her biological father.

Prosecutors said Hovland lied about her pregnancy and childbirth to conceal from her husband a brief affair she had with the baby's biological father, a former neighbor.

During her pregnancy, Hovland told friends and relatives she was gaining weight from cancerous tumors and chemotherapy.

Prosecutors on Tuesday urged McCooey to sentence Hovland to an extended prison term because of the age of the victim and because the crime was cruel and heinous.

Rather than give up the baby for adoption or leave her in a church, Hovland acted out of sheer self-interest and treated her own child "like a piece of garbage," Assistant State's Atty. Lawrence Spector said.

"This was the most senseless and the cruelest crime of all, because there was no need for it."

Hovland's lawyer, Dennis Born, argued that the "cruel and heinous" description is reserved for cases in which someone is tortured, bound or disfigured.

McCooey agreed, finding no "wanton cruelty" in what Hovland did.

Before sentencing, Born asked McCooey to consider the punishment that already has been inflicted upon Hovland.

Since her conviction in May, Hovland has lost her parental rights not only to Mary Grace but also to her two sons.

Since her arrest, Hovland has been alone. None of her relatives attended her trial, and no one was there for her at the sentencing.

After the hearing, she was strapped and handcuffed to the gurney and taken to a hospital. Hovland will begin serving her prison sentence in late August.

Born said he plans to appeal the jury's guilty verdict as well as McCooey's sentence. "The sentence, based upon her lack of a criminal background and the circumstances of the case, was harsh," Born said.

He added that publicity surrounding the case may have contributed to the stiff sentence.

After the hearing, Spector said the sentence was appropriate for the crime. He noted that Hovland's words to McCooey only showed that she continued to deny "the very things the jury said she did."

"I never heard the two words that might've helped her--`I'm sorry,' " Spector said. "It was a very substantial sentence, and she deserves every bit of it."